The City of Cape Town says the Summer Greens skate park is on track and nearing completion, but others say the park looks nothing like the original plans.
The City budgeted R180 000 for the park – one of the capital projects for the 2016/2017 financial year.
The skate park is on the field next to the Summer Greens community hall and a play park in Tinkers Road.
Since building started about two years ago, it has developed cracks and tiny holes in the concrete.
Reagan Croeser, chairman of the Summer Greens Neighbourhood Watch (SGNW), said the original plans showed the park curved like a figure eight – a far cry from the current shape which looks more like a “horse shoe”.
“The design looks silly. There’s no flow now. The quality of the work is also very poor. The concrete already has cracks and holes in it and it’s not smooth. Skaters need a smooth surface to ride on,” said Mr Croeser.
He also wanted to know who approved the putt-putt course built in the middle of the skate park.
He said it looked “out of place” and didn’t make sense to him.
Professional skateboarder Dallas Oberholzer, from the non-profit Indigo Skate Camp, designed the skateboard park but said he had not had a chance to see the project through to the end.
His design had called for a figure of eight running along the existing jungle gym.
He said he had been asked to provide standard structures, such as the quarter-pipe ramp, but had not been asked to approve the structures and no skateboarder had been used to “test if the park was user friendly”.
The skate park didn’t work out very well, he said, saying it was “poorly executed”.
He said steel rods should have been laid in the flat concrete slabs but they hadn’t been and that was why cracks were forming.
“The fact is it’s not smooth, and skateboarders need a smooth surface,” said Mr Oberholzer.
He said he had been paid for the design but had offered his help and advice for free.
“The wheels are bound to fall off if you don’t have a skateboarder to test if it’s user friendly. It’s a fail on behalf of skateboarders and calls for the necessity of a federation that will ensure quality control. As individuals we don’t really have a say,” he said.
Chairman of the Summer Greens Ratepayers’ Association, Bridgette Lloyd, said the project was being dragged out and she felt that the contractors had done lousy work.
“As it stands now, it seems like a waste of money that could have been put to better use elsewhere,” said Ms Lloyd.
JP Smith, Mayco member for safety and security; and social services, said the project had been meant to take place in phases funded by the ward budget.
“Building commenced in the 2016/17 financial year with the first phase of the project.
“The second phase ran over the 2017/18 financial year and the third and final phase will run over the 2018/2019 financial year,” said Mr Smith.
He did not list what each of these phases included and said only that the third phase would be complete by December.
“The park is not designed just for skateboarding. It is intended to be a multi-purpose facility for BMX and toddler scooters among others,” he said.
